You can definitely live off less, however in America there is tons of opportunities to make a lot more, was talking to this guy who fixed my roof a few weeks back, spoke very poor English but enough to live and work in this country, anyway asked him where he was from, guy was from Peru, then I asked how he liked his job, being I used to be a brick layer at one point in my life and I enjoyed it a great deal, the guys said he loved it, asked him how long he's been in the US, said around 12 years, I asked if he was making good money with this company, he said yes he gets paid by the day not the hour and it's $350 a day, he works six days a week, I was like wow, that's great money being that you are not from this country, he agreed, he told me he will stay here for another 3 years and then go back to Peru, where he owns 2 houses now. No degree, nothing.. barely even speaks English, only in America!